Status of the Coastal Temperate Rain Forest, 1995
Keywords: Forests
(An excerpt from The Rain Forests of Home: An Atlas of People and Place)
North America's coastal rain forests contain some of the world's most valuable commercial timber lands. They have been heavily harvested, particularly in the southern third of the bioregion. In this map, mature coastal forests that have not been extensively logged or disturbed by other development appear green. The red areas are those classified as "developed." Other areas within the bioregion, shown in gold, consist of undisturbed bog, muskeg, and high-elevation rain forest. The boundaries of existing protected areas larger than 250 hectares within the coastal temperate rain forest bioregion are also shown in relation to mature forest and other land cover classes.
To determine the extent of remaining natural forest, analysts created a region-wide "human development" layer, depicting areas of forest affected by logging, farming, or urban development. Undeveloped areas within the bioregion were mapped by subtracting areas affected by human activity from the map of original distribution. An overlay of areas of remaining mature forest (compiled from various sources), when superimposed on the map of undeveloped areas, distinguished forested from non-forested undeveloped habitat. Protected areas (provincial, state, and national parks, wilderness areas, etc. that conformed to the World Conservation Union [IUCN] definition of "protection") were also aggregated from various sources and mapped.
The information on this map is not static, but rather changes from year to year as more forest is harvested or protected. Some areas shown on this map as remaining mature forest may in fact now be logged, and others may have been protected.
Highlights:
- Overall, 44 percent of the North American coastal temperate rain forest has been developed. The main impact of development is evident from Vancouver Island south.
- Two factors—accessibility and value—have determined the pattern of development.
- Sixteen percent of the coastal temperate rain forest bioregion is protected. More than two-thirds of the protected coastal temperate rain forest is forest of the subpolar and perhumid zones in Alaska.
- The most important opportunities to protect large contiguous areas of coastal temperate rain forest are in Alaska and northwestern British Columbia, while restoration efforts will characterize conservation in the lower forty-eight.
Map based on technical analysis by Andrew P. Mitchell, Randall H. Hagenstein, Lisa J. Lackey, and Marko Z. Muellner.
Map by: Pacific GIS
Created: January 1, 1995
